Oceans and Continents

The seven continents and five oceans: their names, sizes and main features, and how land and water share the Earth’s surface.

Key ideas

About 71 per cent of the Earth’s surface is water and about 29 per cent is land, which is why it is called the blue planet.
A continent is a very large, continuous mass of land; there are seven of them.
Asia is the largest continent and has the most people; Australia, surrounded by water, is the smallest and is called an island continent.
Africa is crossed by the Equator and both Tropics, and has the Sahara and the river Nile.
Antarctica, around the South Pole, is covered by thick ice and has no permanent population, only scientists at research stations.
The Pacific is the largest and deepest ocean; the Arctic, around the North Pole, is the smallest.
Oceans give us food, routes for ships and rain, and keep temperatures milder, so they must be kept free of plastic and oil.

Continents, largest first	Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, Australia
Five oceans	Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern, Arctic
Water and land	about 71% water, 29% land
Deepest point	the Mariana Trench, in the Pacific Ocean
Ocean named after a country	the Indian Ocean (the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal are parts of it)
India in Antarctica	research stations Maitri and Bharati
Isthmus of Panama	the narrow strip joining North and South America

Calling the Atlantic the largest ocean: the Pacific is largest, the Atlantic second.
Forgetting the Southern Ocean, which surrounds Antarctica, when naming the five oceans.
Thinking Antarctica has towns and a population: only scientists stay there for a time.

A globe’s surface is divided into 900 equal squares. About 29 out of every 100 are land. About how many squares are land, and how many are water?

Working: 900 ÷ 100 × 29; the rest are water

Answer: land: 261; water: 639